Every meal deserves a sharp dressed beer.

I See Skies of Blue..

This is not a time for story telling. This is a “get me the recipe right meow” type of post. No more lolly-gagging. No more shanningans. No more hootin’ n’ hollerin’. Ya hear?

Oh, but one quick story. The ladies cooked. Not only did we cook, but we cooked with SPATEN OPTIMATOR! We don’t know why we chose this beer, but why not. It was a crapshoot, and we scored! The gents entertained the toddlers. It was the most successful cooking session to date. Nobody lost track of time or their minds! Everybody won that Tuesday night.

The How-To:
Place all ingredients in pan on stove. We cooked this on high and stirred constantly to cook out the alcohol. Turn down the heat once everything is melted. It gets almost like a caramel constancy once it starts to cool down. It is very sticky, but really good we promise!

That exclamation point did not indicate excitement, but actual yelling. We’re kidding.

Note: Glaze is easier to work with when its a tad warmer.

Mid-grilling picture, real life. Just two girls, the glaze, the asparagus ready for its turn on the grill, and two beers.

Note: Two girls not pictured.

Straight off the grill:

One bite in, and The Dashing Gent was singing, “I see skies of blue, red roses too..” That was followed up by a chorus of “Oh, dat ham, dat glaze!”

Basically, it was delicious.

We served with grilled asparagus, a Greek salad, and a very flopped peach pie. We enjoy variety in our meals, and we never turn down a flopped dessert. The grilled asparagus we drizzled with olive oil and then sprinkled coarse sea salt and black pepper on them. We grilled these straight on the grates. We like a little char on the asparagus, but still some crunch! To get Lady Bird to eat asparagus, you call them “green beans.” Works like a charm every time!

The Greek salad had fresh garden lettuce {thanks Suzi’s mom for the garden lettuce}, cherry tomatoes, yellow bell peppers, english cucumbers, kalamata olives, onions, and feta cheese! Sprinkle sea salt and pepper on top when salad assembled. Suzi made a Greek vinaigrette for this yummy thing, but the recipe for the dressing is still a work in progress. She mastered it, but we dump and adjust a lot, so we do not have exact increments currently. We’d hate to give you a flopped dressing recipe. That’s not our style. We love you more than that. Miss Livie Bear approved of the dressing and liked to dip her cucumbers in it.

This is also outstanding on grilled chicken if you’re not a fan of the forbidden meat. You can use any type of dark beer to your liking. The second time we made this, we used a Backroad Stout from Millstream.

Oh, yes, the star of this show, the beer….

We used a German style beer in this glaze. Like mentioned before, the beer we picked was Spaten Optimator. This beer is a dark beer that has a roasty flavor. The style is a double bock or doppel bock. We thought the roast of this beer, the wood pellet grill, and the sweet glaze would go great together. Not tooting our own horn, but it worked. This beer is smooth and very tasty.

To learn more about this brewery click here. You can also find this beer at Hessen Haus in Des Moines. They have this on tap, but you cannot drink this one in a boot. Probably because the ABV on this beer is 7.6%. Be sure to check out the boot sometime with your friends this summer! Always a fun time. You can also find this beer at Hy-Vee Wine in Spirits.